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[373] Plymouth. Lieutenant Perkins's health had been a good deal impaired by chills and fever; and after this march, which was wearisome, and followed by exhausting picket duty in the swamp country, he was obliged to go down to Beaufort to recruit. He had by no means, however, regained his strength when he rejoined his regiment to take part in the expedition to Kinston and Goldsborough, in December, 1862. Nothing but his indomitable pluck enabled him, in his debilitated condition, to stand the fatigues of this long march. The Twenty-fourth left Newbern, with other portions of the Eighteenth Corps, for South Carolina, in January, 1863, when General Hunter undertook operations against Charleston in conjunction with the fleet under the late Admiral Dupont. The land forces, however, effected little, and the great naval contest of the 7th of April ended unsuccessfully for us. In June, General Gillmore relieved General Hunter, and soon afterwards he commenced the series of operations by which he captured Fort Wagner and silenced Fort Sumter. Folly Island was first seized, and then a landing effected on Morris Island, at the northern extremity of which was Fort Wagner. Some of Lieutenant Perkins's letters written at this time, besides giving an excellent picture of what was going on, show unconsciously how bravely he was bearing up against debility and sickness, and how faithfully he was doing his duty, in spite of all depressing influences.
Sever and Francis, 1866.
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